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#41
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Gotta keep it from The Children
"Nathan Nagel" wrote in message
... oh nathan, i wasn't talking about *you*. in fact, i was making it up completely!!!!!!!!!!!!! --- whoops, there goes a week of lunches so stop stomping all over my joke. I'll buy ya dinner next time you're in DC-land then. at this rate you'll owe me 27 courses. So how's archy, anyway? who? Now we're even apparently. http://www.donmarquis.com/archy/index.html Somehow it's less funny with an explanation (I *knew* I should have gone with an e.e.cummings reference.) hahaha, yes you SHOULD. I'm just practicing to be a curmudgeon someday. i would like to be a fractious old biddy with a polyester dress, a drinking habit, & a hairy chin. i shall elbow young & muscular people out of the way in my furious attempts to claim the best seat on the bus. once i get it, i'll sit there having a spit-flyingly animated conversation with myself in order to keep the seat next to me free as well. kylie |
#42
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OT (wildly): photo tix and dropping the hammer was Gotta keep itfrom The Children
0tterbot wrote: "Nathan Nagel" wrote in message ... You have speed and red light cameras there? Sheesh, I thought it was only in DC where we'd sunk so low. Hopefully yours don't work on a commission basis (don't get me started. Seriously. This has been discussed in another newsgroup which I frequent beyond the point of nausea to nearly shoving sharp desktop implements through my nostrils and eardrums in an attempt to avoid inadvertantly reading another post on the subject. all right, you better read this with your eyes shut, then. ;-) Kind of like watching football with your eyes shut after thanksgiving dinner? (oh, wait, you don't have football or thanksgiving. Ummm... you get the idea anyway, I hope.) And yet some people still don't see the blatant corruption...) i must say, a lot of my compatriots agree with your view - which is that they are for revenue-raising & not to promote safety. *i* think that since everyone knows you're not allowed to speed & not allowed to run red lights, that they are ok. also, there are signs posted in camera areas. it's simply not possible not to know they're there (unlike the cops hiding behind a tree with a radar, which one often doesn't know are there) - so in terms of fairness i just can't see what the problem is. people get caught doing what they are perfectly well aware they shouldn't do, therefore no problem imo. certainly they do raise a lot of revenue, but that's not really the point. if someone breaks the law & gets caught, they have only themselves to blame. Ah, see, there's a difference. There's a speed camera in the 3rd street tunnel in DC... just found out when a coworker got nabbed. No signs anywhere. It's entirely possible that someone commuting through the tunnel every day could rack up a ticket a day until the first one came in the mail, which could be months! The red light cameras are another issue - they're generally installed by subcontractors, not the government themselves, and the subcontractors often get paid not a flat fee for installing and maintaining the cameras but instead their pay is based on *how many tickets* the camera generates. It's been shown that the most profitable cameras are often installed at intersections where the yellow light is either shorter than recommended by various guidelines, or *has actually been shortened* to artificially increase the number of violations. Obviously properly setting the yellow light time would reduce violations and make the roads safer, but it doesn't generate the same profit for the state (or District) or the subcontractor, so until a private citizen makes a stink about it it's ignored. The biggest tip-off that they're really about revenue and not safety is that unlike a ticket issued by an officer, the only consequence of receiving a photo ticket is that you have to pay the fine. No points on your license or anything. (I suppose if there *were* points, that would raise some sort of Constitutional issue, but we haven't really paid much attention to it over the past few decades anyway, especially that pesky Bill of Rights. But now I'm getting all political on you, and I can see your eyes starting to glaze halfway around the globe.) my issue about it is that there's a speed limit on freeways of 110km/hour, which i think is stupidly slow for a wide, well-made (& usually quite empty) freeway, which is then enforced with cameras. but (like smoking) speeding's quite the taboo around here, to the point where the lawmakers aren't sensible about it. (e.g. you're usually allowed the state limit of 100 on a pocked, narrow, winding country road in the dark with cows all over it & a stream of semi-trailers coming the other way, & that's clearly too fast in some instances, but on a fabulous freeway you can only go 10km/hour faster & it simply defies logic.) as well as that, there's the preassumption that everybody speeds, which i find annoying because i rarely speed. Same problem here, speed limits of 55 MPH (89km/h) or 65 (105) on freeways, depending on whether they're "urban" or not - some states even allow a heady 70 MPH now. Traffic in my area regularly flows at 80 or higher outside rush hour. I've exceeded the speed limit in just about every car I've ever driven, including a '41 Studebaker. (yes, it handled the heady speed of 70 MPH quite well.) The presence of an officer usually accomplishes nothing other than to create a traffic jam as everyone stands on their brakes simultaneously. Secondary road speed limits are usually more reasonable though. but we don't want to get into duelling rants here, do we. :-) kylie Oh, why the hell not, this *is* ADFP after all... nate |
#43
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OT (wildly): photo tix and dropping the hammer was Gotta keep it from The Children
"Nathan Nagel" wrote in message
... Kind of like watching football with your eyes shut after thanksgiving dinner? (oh, wait, you don't have football or thanksgiving. Ummm... you get the idea anyway, I hope.) we've got football & lots of it! *four* professional codes & other codes played non-professionally. beat that, alleged football person!!!! Ah, see, there's a difference. There's a speed camera in the 3rd street tunnel in DC... just found out when a coworker got nabbed. No signs anywhere. It's entirely possible that someone commuting through the tunnel every day could rack up a ticket a day until the first one came in the mail, which could be months! oh my, that's revenue raising in a big way. oh dear. The red light cameras are another issue - they're generally installed by subcontractors, not the government themselves, and the subcontractors often get paid not a flat fee for installing and maintaining the cameras but instead their pay is based on *how many tickets* the camera generates. It's been shown that the most profitable cameras are often installed at intersections where the yellow light is either shorter than recommended by various guidelines, or *has actually been shortened* to artificially increase the number of violations. Obviously properly setting the yellow light time would reduce violations and make the roads safer, but it doesn't generate the same profit for the state (or District) or the subcontractor, so until a private citizen makes a stink about it it's ignored. how wrong is that?! that's wrong, nate. not only is it wrong, but i hope tom enright read that & is presently eating his words about socialistic governments!!!!!! READ IT, TOM! but i won't get into it, because we can easily agree how warped it is to have private subcontrators policing the roads. The biggest tip-off that they're really about revenue and not safety is that unlike a ticket issued by an officer, the only consequence of receiving a photo ticket is that you have to pay the fine. No points on your license or anything. (I suppose if there *were* points, that would raise some sort of Constitutional issue, but we haven't really paid much attention to it over the past few decades anyway, especially that pesky Bill of Rights. But now I'm getting all political on you, and I can see your eyes starting to glaze halfway around the globe.) no, i'm all fired up with the wrongness of it all ;-) i have sparky things coming out. i'm not sure (not having read your bill of rights, naturally) that there would be a constitutional issue: my husband would tell you in scintillating detail about the one (1) time i was caught by a speeding camera in our car, which is registered in his name, thus causing him 2 demerit points on his licence for the aforementioned offence. but as stated elsewhere, he could have signed a stat dec claiming that *i* was driving & have the points on my licence instead. but he had the full component of points & couldn't be bothered pursuing it. i doubt it would come to a matter of the consititution - if so, how? of course, the assumption as above is that the revenue raising aspect is the sole motivator (in d.c.) so therefore it may well be unamended because they'd need to bring in private subcontrators to rewrite the law at the cheapest possible price ;-) Same problem here, speed limits of 55 MPH (89km/h) or 65 (105) on freeways, depending on whether they're "urban" or not - some states even allow a heady 70 MPH now. Traffic in my area regularly flows at 80 or higher outside rush hour. I've exceeded the speed limit in just about every car I've ever driven, including a '41 Studebaker. (yes, it handled the heady speed of 70 MPH quite well.) The presence of an officer usually accomplishes nothing other than to create a traffic jam as everyone stands on their brakes simultaneously. Secondary road speed limits are usually more reasonable though. not sure what you mean by secondary road speed limits...? (for secondary roads?) tell me what you think - we have 60km/h standard speed in town (or any built up area), many places have 50km/h in suburban streets, & all have 40km/h school zones which operate (iirc) from 8-10am & again 2.30-4pm. this means someone could come off a freeway (110km/h) & slow down to 60 for the main thoroughfare, drop to 50 when s/he enters a suburban street, has to check the time & slow down to 40 because there's a school zone (or not slow down outside those hours), increase to 50 at the end of the school zone, turn a corner into a main thoroughfare (60), join an arterial road (70 to 90, it all depends) & in the meantime not go completely insane. i think it's sheer unadulterated madness, but nobody else seems to share my view. i have a school child & still can't be guaranteed to know exactly when i should be slowing for a school zone, because they're wider than school hours & the middle of the school day doesn't count! argh!! i completely sympathise with the thinking behind it (some people DO drive too fast in suburban streets, & SHOULD be stopped) but your ordinary person has so much to deal with in terms of signage already (varying speed limits, trying to ascertain clearway hours, notices for not turning left or right, merging signs, humps, watching for pedestrians & god knows what) whilst trying to drive that it's simply impossible to follow the law exactly in conditions like this. if all extraneous advertising, good-looking male pedestrians, attractive buildings, other vehicles & pedestrians etc were all removed, one could possibly concentrate solely on the actual road signage & driving the actual car. man, sorry about that but alt.peeves must be good for something ;-) kylie |
#44
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Gotta keep it from The Children
0tterbot wrote: "Nathan Nagel" wrote in message ... oh nathan, i wasn't talking about *you*. in fact, i was making it up completely!!!!!!!!!!!!! --- whoops, there goes a week of lunches so stop stomping all over my joke. I'll buy ya dinner next time you're in DC-land then. at this rate you'll owe me 27 courses. Well, that'll be a long dinner then! So how's archy, anyway? who? Now we're even apparently. http://www.donmarquis.com/archy/index.html Somehow it's less funny with an explanation (I *knew* I should have gone with an e.e.cummings reference.) hahaha, yes you SHOULD. I'm just practicing to be a curmudgeon someday. i would like to be a fractious old biddy with a polyester dress, a drinking habit, & a hairy chin. i shall elbow young & muscular people out of the way in my furious attempts to claim the best seat on the bus. once i get it, i'll sit there having a spit-flyingly animated conversation with myself in order to keep the seat next to me free as well. kylie I can sympathise completely, except for the hairy chin part. The only reason *I* have one is I'm too lazy to be arsed to shave. I find it singularly unattractive on females, although I suppose if you're trying to get people to leave you alone, it doesn't really matter... nate |
#45
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OT (wildly): photo tix and dropping the hammer was Gotta keepit from The Children
0tterbot wrote: "Nathan Nagel" wrote in message ... I do not think that word means what you think it means. In other words, what we call "football" here is somewhat akin to rugby, although different enough that a rugby fan would still be confused by it. Sometimes called "american football" outside the YooEss. What you call "football" is probably what we call "soccer." not at all. robert summed it up pretty nicely (although he's writing from his own local p.o.v. i note - what he calls association is known here as the rugby union, aka rugby). soccer is the least professional & lowest profile of the 4 professional codes here. shame, that, but there you are. might i add my utter affrontment at any parallel between american "football" & the grand game of rugby!!!!! rugby is a wonderful game, fast-moving, thrilling & exceptionally violent. Don't take the comparison too far... I'd probably categorize american football as "rugby lite" if pressed. snip it does sound sensible off the top of people's heads. it's not a question of "how" fast, it's more a question of speed limits going up & down like a yoyo. it sounds wonderful until you're trying to do it in a busy & unfamiliar area. its only saving grace is that the cops in town are apparently unfamiliar with the fact they're responsible for monitoring traffic speed when they're out & about. heh... good thing eh? actually they're all out on the interstate writing people for 73 in a 65. (I still think in miles and feet, although I do have more familiarity with the metric system than most 'murricans thanks to an engineering degree) The same sort of thing happens here - trying to guess what a speed limit shoud be is near pointless, you have to constantly watch for the signs. Unfortunately, it's always about 20 MPH lower than I feel safe driving, except in residential areas... Speed limits etc. are generally pretty clear (clearly posted, that is) here, but for some reason the "speed kills" crowd has taken over the machinery of deciding speed limits here yes, same here, exactly. (snip) I was under the impression that Australia was much more rational and in some provinces states ;-) Sorry, thinking of Canada and ASSuming that all the ex-British colonies used similar terminology. (yeah, I know, technically we are one too, at least the East Coast, but that was a LONG time ago.) actually had German-style unlimited speed freeways - is my info out of date? yes, sort of. in the northern territory afaik all roads except within towns are a free-for-all. everywhere else (again afaik) has a limit. Sigh. Guess that limits the vacation options then... man, sorry about that but alt.peeves must be good for something ;-) kylie I find it very cathartic at times. You should stop by sometime, i shall! Just don't tell 'em I invited you. I haven't been taught the secret handshake myself yet. but should you ever post here regularly I must warn you that use of emoticons is almost universally 'd upon. Summat about writing snobs, like me old mate pockets? although I have to admit, it does make one think about what one is writing more carefully and tends to make one's words more exact as well. (also forces one to develop a dry sense of humor, if one doesn't already posess same, unless one wishes to be completely serious all the time.) :-O heh. those emoticons fly out of my fingers cos in the rest of usenet doesn't understand & previous expressions of my dryness (not to mention local vernacular) have led to misunderstandings. i'm sure you understand where pockets would not. kylie Aside from not knowing pockets, I think I do... nate |
#46
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OT (wildly): photo tix and dropping the hammer was Gotta keep it from The Children
On Wed, 25 Jun 2003 13:09:55 +1000, "0tterbot" wrote:
tell me what you think - we have 60km/h standard speed in town (or any built up area), many places have 50km/h in suburban streets, & all have 40km/h school zones which operate (iirc) from 8-10am & again 2.30-4pm. this means someone could come off a freeway (110km/h) & slow down to 60 for the main thoroughfare, drop to 50 when s/he enters a suburban street, has to check the time & slow down to 40 because there's a school zone (or not slow down outside those hours), increase to 50 at the end of the school zone, turn a corner into a main thoroughfare (60), join an arterial road (70 to 90, it all depends) & in the meantime not go completely insane. i think it's sheer unadulterated madness, but nobody else seems to share my view. i have a school child & still can't be guaranteed to know exactly when i should be slowing for a school zone, because they're wider than school hours & the middle of the school day doesn't count! argh!! Move to Qld. My father-in-law made the exact same argument when he came to visit last year. He hated driving down the Pacific Hwy because he had NO idea of what speed he was supposed to be doing at any given time. From what he said there are only 3 speed limits in Qld - 60km, 80km and 100km (except for two roads which have 110km but he doesn't count them because they are still "trial" speed limits, 4 years at least since they started). There is a new push in North Sydney to have all suburban streets dropped to 40km permanently, does that help your blood pressure? -- Cheryl DS#1 (Mar 99), DS#2 (Oct 00) DD born 30 Jul 02 |
#47
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OT (wildly): photo tix and dropping the hammer was Gotta keep it from The Children
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#48
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OT (wildly): photo tix and dropping the hammer was Gotta keep it from The Children
"Robert Sneddon" wrote in message ... In article , Dan Evans mailer.da writes You'll be calling the British Flag the "Union Jack" next, which is a MAJOR peeve of mine. Well, it's the Union Flag. If it's on the jackstaff of a ship or a boat it's the Union Jack. Thank gh0d for that, at least one other person knows that. It always ****s me off big time when it gets called the Union Jack. The real British Flag would probably be the Royal Standard. Nah, that's the Royal Standard. The British flag, ie the Flag of the Union between the 4 nations in corporating all 4 flags, is the Union Flag. Bad luck about your tranny - I've had several over the years and found you either got a gem or a turd. Seems like you got a turd. Dan |
#49
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OT (wildly): photo tix and dropping the hammer was Gotta keep it from The Children
"Cheryl" wrote in message
news There is a new push in North Sydney to have all suburban streets dropped to 40km permanently, does that help your blood pressure? that sounds marvellous, thank you. although, like all sensible girls, i avoid north sydney like the plague. oh well! kylie |
#50
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OT (wildly): photo tix and dropping the hammer was Gotta keep it from The Children
"0tterbot" wrote in message ... "Nathan Nagel" wrote in message ... Don't take the comparison too far... I'd probably categorize american football as "rugby lite" if pressed. *cough!* rugby league is "rugby lite" if you want to go there. (you don't!!) League is "lite" my arse. I used to live near Featherstone Rovers and Castelford - those are ****ing big guys who train ****ing hard. Your thinking of Union being the "lite" version Dan |
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